London: Wayne Rooney came off the bench to send Manchester United into the last 16 of the FA Cup with a 2-1 win over Portsmouth at Old Trafford on Saturday.

The England forward tapped in Ryan Giggs's low cross 13 minutes from time before scoring one of the best goals of his career to date, beating Pompey goalkeeper David James with an exquisite chip from 25 yards.

Nigerian striker Kanu deflected in a Pedro Mendes shot to give the visitors' hope up until the final whistle but United were not to be denied the win.

Elsewhere, West Ham's miserable season took another turn for the worse when last year's runners-up were dumped out by fellow Premiership strugglers Watford.

An overhead kick by Anthony McNamee minutes before half-time earned Watford a 1-0 win and a place in the fifth round.

League One side Bristol City produced the most impressive performance of the afternoon, battling back from 2-0 down to force Middlesbrough to a replay.

There were no such worries for the other Premiership sides in action on Saturday, Tottenham, Fulham, Reading and Blackburn all easing through against lower league opponents.

But Barnet and Bristol Rovers, the last two surviving representatives of English football's fourth tier, League Two, both went out.

Middlesbrough had appeared to be cruising at Ashton Gate after first-half goals from Aiyegbeni Yakubu and Malcolm Christie.

Richard Keogh lifted the home crowd by pulling one back seven minutes after the restart and, six minutes later, Scott Murray lobbed Mark Schwarzer for a well-deserved equaliser.

Barnet held out for more than an hour at home to Plymouth before going down to a 2-0 defeat courtesy of Hansey Aljofree's 67th-minute penalty and a superb solo effort from on-loan Chelsea teenager Scott Sinclair.

Bristol Rovers got even closer to a replay before having their hearts broken by Derby's veteran forward Paul Peschisolido, who came off the bench to snatch a winner eight minutes from the end.

Birmingham, who had knocked Newcastle out in the third round, were brought back down to earth by Reading, who were good value for their 3-2 win at St Andrews.

Dave Kitson celebrated his first start for Reading since the opening day of the season by opening the scoring inside three minutes and Leroy Lita added a brace either side of a Martin Taylor goal for the home side. Sebastian Larsson scored a 90th minute consolation goal for the hosts.

A superb stoppage-time save by on-loan Celtic goalkeeper David Marshall denied Blackpool a famous win over Norwich after Ian Evatt had cancelled out Darren Huckerby's opener for the Canaries.

Benni McCarthy scored his 15th goal of the season to help Blackburn to a 4-0 win over the Championship's Luton.

Matt Derbyshire claimed a double either side of the South African's strike and Morten Gamst Pedersen wrapped things up with the best goal of the four.

Goals by England under-21 striker David Nugent and defender Kelvin Wilson earned Preston a 2-0 win in their all-Championship clash at Crystal Palace.

Fulham's fine recent run of form continued with a 3-0 cruise past Stoke.

On-loan Roma striker Vincenzo Montella claimed his fourth goal in three games in English football to open the scoring. Brian McBride and Tomasz Radzinski were also on target as Chris Coleman's side extended their unbeaten run to ten matches in all competitions

Tottenham eased past Southend, who are currently propping up the Championship, with a 3-1 win at White Hart Lane.

Robbie Keane's first-half strike was followed by a goal for Jermaine Jenas five minutes after the break. Southend briefly harboured hopes of a fightback following a Freddy Eastwood penalty 20 minutes from time but Egyptian striker Ahmed Mido made the result safe for Spurs with just under quarter of an hour left.

A 64th-minute penalty from Alan Lee was enough to earn Ipswich a 1-0 win over Swansea.